Livin' La Needle Loca

...I can't believe that I haven't posted since Monday! This week simply escaped me. First, let's do the eye candy. Sunrise before the latest rain storms hit: Potted hyacinth in the kitchen: Santa Rosa Plum blossoms in between rain storms: With all of the Stitches West madness, I forgot to upload a picture of the Loopy Ewe club installment for February: Love the yarn colors on this one! The patterns look interesting and the extra is just OK. Not a big fan of the bags, even though they are very useful. Up this weekend: I need to get into gear with the large commission piece I'm making. I haven't done anything on it since before Stitches West. I need to ut thing away in the craft room so I can work on it...it's a quilt and right now the craft room as a little bit of fiber in it LOL!  I'd like to finish spinning the yarn I started at the Spin-In earlier this month. And I'm getting very close to finishing the Mochaberry Bramble socks...it wou...

...great class...great shopping...great time! I bought a lot of great fiber from my favorite SW vendors ( Royale Hare , Miss Babs , Lisa Souza , Judy's Novelty Wool) and from a couple of new-to-me vendors ( Sunshine Yarns ,  A Verb for Keeping Warm ). Like last year, I didn't concentrate on buying yarn, but I did buy enough to weave two wraps. Thursday was my big shopping day, with additional purchases on Friday and Sunday. For the first time, I did not attend all four days of the market. I really didn't feel like fighting the Saturday crowds and since I'd already bought fiber, I wasn't in a crushing rush to get back to the market. I figured, if I didn't buy anything on Sunday, that was OK. I really wanted to be there for the prize drawing on Sunday, so I made that my goal. I didn't win, but I managed to buy something after all. LOL! I was lured into the magic of Brooks Farm again. I have made one wrap out of their yarn that was a joy to weave and is ...

...I was bad, but it felt so good! I'm uploading individual pictures to Flickr ( Stitches West 2011 group ), but it may take a while. My one class was great and I actually had a finished item. I took some pictures before washing. It's drying now and I hope it will full a bit. the close up... Specs: Warped 78 inches long, 10 inches wide; 7.7 dpi; approx 8 ppi; Warp yarns are a combination of silk, metallic, wool, and ribbon yarns; Weft is a fingering wool It was fun combining different yarns for the warp. Anyway, I'm going to meet up with friends for the last day of the market tomorrow. I'm just going to cruise the market and look at the booths that I missed on Thursday. Since most of those are yarn booths, I don't expect that I'll buy anything else, but it will be fun to look! .

...because I have a ton to do before I can get out of here today.  I've been so busy, I've been zonked at the end of the day.  I haven't been able to get my class materials together for Stitches West yet!  This is why I take Thursday off...my clients always seem to come up with something they want by the end of Wednesday. At least I have most of tomorrow to get ready! Blog posting will be sporadic (I know...what's new!), but I hope to get pictures of my Stitches West purchases uploaded as soon as I can. I'm on a more restricted budget this year...the economic downturn finally hit us. :-( However, I've severely cut back on my online purchases so I can spend some money at the market. I plan on buying from the local yarn stores who are at the market whenever possible! I leave you with this picture to hold you over...red velvet mini-cupcakes: I used the Magnolia Bakery recipe. Many of the recipes that are marked Magnolia Bakery use vanilla frosting. I wanted...

...I was going to show you the cool, red velvet cupcakes I made yesterday for Spin-In. However, I'm at work and my camera is still in my knitting bag, at home! Camera fail! Anyway, if you celebrate Valentine's Day, enjoy! Me, I hope to crack open a bottle of bubbly and share a toast with the Husband!

...and the weeks just keep whipping by! The Husband recently replaced the plants in our front-of-the-house planters: Yellow viola: Orange viola: Purple Coral Pea Up this weekend: Spin-In on Sunday. Yay, spinning!!  I need to start work on one of my commission quilt pieces.  I still need to stash-dive for the yarn I need for my Stitches West class in one week!!  Next week is a short work week, which means I'll be insane by the end of the day on Wednesday. But then it's a lovely two days off for Stitches West and the Holiday on Monday to recover from it. I'm so looking forward to Stitches West!! .

...they just don't look marginally different than the last time I showed them to you! Turquoise Trails (needlepoint) is progressing slowly. My Tealing Groovy quilt has the most progress, with everything ready to baste. I finally finished all the decreases for the Mochaberry Bramble socks. Now I'm working my way to the toes, see: I finally took pictures of the Agate yarn that I finished over the weekend. and the close-up: Specs: Started: 1/8/11 Finished: 2/5/11 Agate Merino-Silk top from the Yarn Wench Spun and plied on Lendrum DT Folding wheel 223.3 yards, 2 ply WPI 11 Not my best spinning job. I tried a different technique of splitting the top and I'm not happy with the results,. The problem was totally with the spinner not the dyer...the colors in this bump were so beautiful and the result is muddied.  Spin and learn...the next one will be better! .

..."late" seems to be the operative word when it comes to recap posting. Finished: 1/22 Tealing Groovy quilt top (quilting) 1/23 Knit2 Bag for Blogiversary prize winner (sewing) 1/23 4 sets of stitch markers for Blogiversary prize winners (beading) 1/31 Red Marine Silk Wrap (weaving) [ Ravelry ] Books: Blackwork, Monica Ferris Deja Vu, Fern Michaels Cross Roads, Fern Michaels Started:  1/8 Agate Merino-Silk top from Yarn Wench [ Ravelry ] Worked on: Mochaberry Brambles (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Turquoise Trail by Laura J Perin (needlepoint) Wisteria Angora-Merino top from Tactile (spinning) [ Ravelry ] Works In Progress, did not work on: Happy Pumpkin Scissor Fob by Shepherd's Bush (cross stitch) Hexagon socks (knitting) [ Ravelry ]  Jungle Songs quilt, pieced backing Natural Dyes batts from Yarn Wench (spinning)  [ Ravelry ] The Beets Go On (renamed, was My Heart Beets 4U) socks (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Sea Foam Wrap (knitting) [ Ravelry ] ...

...maybe it's because my brain was still foggy from my cold, but Sunday night rolled around too soon for me. My brain was so foggy that I forgot the unwritten rule about Super Bowl Sunday: Never go grocery shopping until after the game starts! If you go before, you'll be completely frustrated by the armchair quarterbacks buying all their drinks and snacks - they never go grocery shopping except on Superbowl Sunday. It's always fun trying to navigate the grocery store with all these clueless people blocking the aisles. [sigh] Anyway, I'm sorry for the camera-fail today. I managed to get out of the house without taking a picture of the yarn I finished spinning on Saturday. Maybe it's because I was somewhat underwhelmed with the final product. I loved it in the bump; I'm just not happy with the way I spun and plied it. After I mailed the last Blogiversary prize on Saturday, I went to a couple of quilt stores look at blue fabrics for one of the commission pro...

...after the last couple of weeks that she's experienced, I want her day to be sunny, positive, and drama-free. I'm slowly recovering from this cold, but still don't have enough energy to do any crafts. So let's do a little catch-up...as I mentioned, I finished my latest weaving project at the end of January. Here are the pictures, finally: Specs : Started 11/20/2010; Finished 1/30/2011 Warp and weft: "True Blood Red" Marine Silk from Blue Moon Fiber Arts Warp: 12 epi Weft: 10 ppi Warped size: 19.75 x 93 inches Finished size: TBD I haven't measured the final wrap yet, but will do so this weekend when I can spread it out on the table. It's so soft! I also received my Rockin' Sock Club installment (behind the spoiler picture). The patterns look interesting and challenging, but I'm not sure whether I will do either one. I love the concept of socks in reverse colors, but neither of the patterns sings to me. I'm monitoring ...

... don't bother coming back another day. No WIP-it Wednesday today 'cuz I'm home with an icky cold.  I don't have the energy to take pictures and get them posted. The recap will have to wait, too/ Want this to go away now...